The importance of an old rural cottage: Media representation and the construction of a national idyll in post-war Sweden

Lagerqvist, Maja

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2014.06.006

Cited by 24 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The symbolic construction of the past in active villages reproduces the rural idyll, i.e. nostalgic and romanticized images related to rurality (Jones 1995;Lagerqvist 2014). According to my results, the rural idyll is a part of the representation of an ideal rural community in two different meanings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…The cultural approach has revealed the complex character of rural space (Halfacree 2006;Jones 1995) by increasing knowledge of diverse meanings and perspectives related to rural places and areas. There have been studies concentrating, for example, on policy representations (Gray 2000), media representations (Lagerqvist 2014;Vepsäläinen and Pitkänen 2010), and local representations (Halfacree 1995;Jones 1995) of rural space. Positive representations of rurality have been studied especially in relation to "rural idyll", i.e.…”

Section: The Ideal Model Of a Rural Community As A Governing Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Positive representations of rurality have been studied especially in relation to "rural idyll", i.e. to the mythical and normative image connected with rurality (Lagerqvist 2014;Pospěch et al 2015;Vepsäläinen and Pitkänen 2010). Even if the existence of the rural idyll has been questioned by several studies (for example Little 1999), it is still present in media representations and also in local people's descriptions (Jones 1995;Vepsäläinen and Pitkänen 2010).…”

Section: The Ideal Model Of a Rural Community As A Governing Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Village of the Year Competition Constructing an Ideal Model of a Rural Community in Finland

Kumpulainen

2016

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The Village Action Association of Finland (SYTY) organizes the Village of the Year competition annually to award active rural communities. The competition has taken place since 1985, but after the village action movement was integrated into Finnish rural policy networks in the 1990s, it also became a part of rural policy instruments. The competition can be considered a governing technique that constructs norms and an ideal model for rural communities to pursue. In this article, I study the representation of an ideal rural community by analysing the criteria of the competition. I also look for changes to see whether the integration of the village action movement into rural policy is reflected in the norms and representations of ideal rural communities. The results show that an ideal rural community consists of five characteristics: strategic planning, development projects, responsibility for local welfare, cherishing cultural heritage, and village spirit. They also reveal that the requirements for active villages have expanded, which reflects the increasing responsibility of communities for service provision and local development in rural areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: The Ideal Model Of a Rural Community As A Governing Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Ideal Model Of a Rural Community As A Governing Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Village of the Year Competition Constructing an Ideal Model of a Rural Community in Finland

Kumpulainen

2016

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“…Evaldsson (1998, 60) argues that cultural identity is in flux and needs maintenance, the formation of cultural identities is a process, and identities are 'situated in intersubjective local spaces and [are] part of global flows'. There are social implications for the representations used in identity construction (Lagerqvist 2014), which supports Bureychak's (2012, 139) point that 'continual reiteration and institutional reproduction' of specific representations are important mechanisms in maintaining the 'hegemony of this imagery'. Before examining issues around arms production and neutrality, this section presents some key assumptions about 'Swedishness' that are evident throughout Saab's videos and in that way act as a means for maintaining dominant views on which characteristics of being Swedish are valued more highly.…”

Section: Constructing 'Swedishness': Cultural Identity and Armamentsmentioning

confidence: 65%

‘Selling’ national security: Saab, YouTube, and the militarized neutrality of Swedish citizen identity

Jackson

2017

Critical Military Studies

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Producers of large conventional weapons systems are significant actors in politics and their presence in everyday life is a potential site of militarization, yet they remain remarkably understudied in International Relations (IR) research. Though the public cannot purchase their products, 88 of the top 100 arms producers use official corporate YouTube channels to reach the public. Their YouTube videos are political artefacts that these companies use to 'sell' national security as military security, framing the military as a 'good, natural, and necessary' part of society. Examining these videos reveals how this messaging can be conceptualized as a type of militarization because of the relation 'good, natural, and necessary' has to national security constructions. I use an intersectional lens and a multi-modal audio-visual approach to understand how images, sounds, and texts work together to tell a version of Sweden's national security story as constructed in Saab's official corporate YouTube videos. These videos illuminate a view that Sweden does (and should) have militarized national security that seems counter to images of a peacekeeping nation. This national security is centred on a citizen identity that consists of masculinized, heteronormative, and nationally hierarchical constructions of militarized national security. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…While ‘the exact recipe for rural bliss varies historically and geographically’ (Bell, 2006: 150), versions of the rural idyll appear in many cultures (e.g. Chueh and Lu, 2018; Lagerqvist, 2014), with both common roots and localised influences. For instance, New Zealand’s CC ‘depends upon a construction of the rural which is a collage of British antecedents, media-specific conventions, local inflections, particular social interests and material constraints’ (Perry, 1994: 49).…”

Section: Representations Of the Ruralmentioning

confidence: 99%

Themes of connection and progress in rural television: New Zealand’s Country Calendar 1990–2015

Fountaine

2019

Media International Australia

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Airing for over 50 years, New Zealand’s Country Calendar (CC) television show tells the stories of those who live and work on the land. This article presents a thematic analysis of 25 years of programme content, identifying a balance of ‘connection’ and ‘progress’ themes across this time frame, linked to the political economy of NZ broadcasting and agriculture. The concept of the rural idyll helps explain the connection theme’s focus on family, community, a passion or dream, and history and tradition. However, CC’s version of the rural idyll goes beyond nostalgia and the expression of shared social ideals to include the practical, day-to-day ‘work’ of contemporary farming. Ultimately, CC’s content is shaped by the broadcasting and agricultural policies and structures which impact its funding, subjects and socio-economic environment.

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The importance of an old rural cottage: Media representation and the construction of a national idyll in post-war Sweden

Cited by 24 publications

References 26 publications

The Village of the Year Competition Constructing an Ideal Model of a Rural Community in Finland

The Village of the Year Competition Constructing an Ideal Model of a Rural Community in Finland

‘Selling’ national security: Saab, YouTube, and the militarized neutrality of Swedish citizen identity

Themes of connection and progress in rural television: New Zealand’s Country Calendar 1990–2015

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